My wife's recently deleted folder has hit absolute zero. She has totally and completely used up all the space on her TiVo.

She's now losing shows unless she watches something every day to make room. In fact, she's been doing a little of that, and also a little of actually choosing something to delete, because she doesn't want the TiVo to make that choice on her behalf.

I applaud her ability to actually delete something without watching it. This is a new landmark development that strikes to the heart of the OP of this long and nobel thread, "Wife won't delete recordings". After all the years since this thread started, she finally has done it!

But let me say, she just deleted only a little bit - just enough so her To Do list will still record.

At the same time all this has been happening, I've been making a deal with one of our other TCFers here, who has nicely offered to sell me one of her lifetimed TiVos. She gave me permission to mention her name, by the way: jenhudson. She apparantly had an extra TiVo that's been sitting in her closet unused, so she sold it to me.

It's just a series 2, but that's fine, as we have no HD TVs in the house anyway, and even if we ever get one, one of our other TiVos is HD capable anyhow. But the TiVo she sold me (at a reasonable price) also has it's hard drive already upgraded to the same size as the one my wife already had. (System info says up to 340 hours, which I assume is at basic quality). So this doubles my wife's space. I just set up this TiVo a few minutes ago.

But like my wife said, it's not just the extra space she sought, but now when my son is watching TV in one room, she can now watch her TV in the other, so she feels this will give her more of a chance to watch her content and stop it from piling up so much.

If she somehow fills up both her TiVos, then that will just seem whacked out to me, and I can't see an argument for further increasing her space after that. Surely she can live within the generous amount of space she now has. If not, I'll be pretty interested to hear her excuse.

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I haven't looked closely, but I know she has many screens worth of movies sitting in NP on her second TiVo. She does watch some stuff on the second TiVo, but I think she uses it for storage and conflict resolution more than actually watching stuff. She's mainly using the second TiVo to store movies, and she keeps specials, series, and other nonmovie stuff on the primary TiVo. It's possible that she's filled up both TiVos , but I'm not really sure of that. I guess I could go look and see how much free space she actually has on it. I know that the primary TiVo she shares with our son does hover around zero free space, but there are always a few shows on it in NP for my son to watch, so she is indeed sharing it with him. He still watches DVDs too though (and, hard as it to believe, a few VHS tapes as well).

Quote:

Originally Posted by JustAllie

Tim, you'd be foolish to transfer that [my lifetime from my old broken S1] to anything other than a TiVoHD. Seriously -- you could turn around and resell it and still make out like a bandit. Or keep it and have the TiVoHD for many years without paying a monthly fee.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JYoung

I have to agree with the redhead in that you should go ahead and get the TiVoHD or Series 3.

In hindsight, this is all excellent advice, because (as I mentioned in another thread), my employer was trying to make room in the office, and put their HD 32" CRT computer monitor (4:3 aspect ratio, supports 1080i resolution) on craigslist but nobody would make offers, and then we hired a new person, and they got desperate to make room in her future office before her first day on the job, so I took it off their hands for the sweet low price of $25 They also threw in a very sturdy cart for it to sit on (the monitor is quite heavy).

I wasn't sure if it could be converted to an HD TV, but with the help of some smart people here on TCF, I purchased a $58 device made by HDfury.com, which converts the HDMI output from my HDTiVo to the VGA input the CRT Monitor expects. The result is that the monitor now acts as a very nice HD TV, and the quality of the picture is mind boggling to me, because I've never had an HD TV before, so I didn't know what I was missing.

I still just have analog cable, so I also installed an antenna to pick up a quite a few local digital channels, along with something called "sub channels". Altogether around a dozen or so totally free channels, all digital, are now part of my quide data. (The antenna only cost me $11.99, one time fee only.) I'm piping the sound through a stereo, so I'm now enjoying lots of HD features that my HD TiVo has to offer, that I wasn't until recently getting.

So yes, choosing a TiVo HD to move my lifetime onto has worked out excellently. I never considered getting an HD TV to be high enough on my priority list, but for the low $ I just spent, I figured I should not pass that up.

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I've got an 80 hour series two TiVo. We've several season passes, with the option: "Keep until I delete". I've watched everything I want, and am ready to delete, but my wife is severely behind on watching the programs. The TiVo is almost full now, and often when I try to schedule a new program it says it can't schedule because it's out of memory.

(Actually, it's projecting that by the time the show airs, it'll be out of memory because of the "To Do" list, but as the season's really over now, the only stuff in my To Do list are 3 season passes my wife has set up for our 3 year old son -- educational cartoons. These are also "keep until I delete", but my wife has agreed to let me archive these to VHS as soon as they record. Therefore, by the time my desired shows will air, the TiVo really won't be out of memory, but it doesn't know that. A solution is for me to wait until just before the air date, and then schedule a recording.)

My wife is unwilling to delete anything, because she wants to watch it all. (There's quite a prodigious amount recorded right now.) She also doesn't know when she'll have time to watch stuff. She won't change "Keep until I delete" to an expiration date, because she can't guarantee when she'll watch the stuff. Our TiVo is effectively no longer an 80 hour TiVo, but a 6-7 hour TiVo, and it's still all-in-one-pieceshrinking. Soon I'll be TiVoless. [sounds of shocked awe]. She's jeopardizing my TiVo experience. Solutions?

you can always talk to her and explain everything becouse you are the all-in-one-piece and maybe you soul buy some more device to watch eveything you want personally

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I've noticed lately, as more and more of my SPs are coming through my antenna, and recording in HD, that it doesn't take a lot to fill up my TiVo. My wife has for quite awhile now, stayed totally off my TiVo, so the TiVo situation has been pretty peaceful for awhile now.

But even my own SPs are enough to fill up my TiVo if I go too long without watching TV. I've never actually filled it up though. Once I came to within maybe 2 shows of being full, but I watched and deleted stuff, and I usually have about 10 or so shows in Suggestions (sometimes more). Still, not much compared to when I did everything in SD.

There are a couple of shows on there I haven't deleted because my wife told me she wants to watch them. But typically, a few months go by, she never watches it, and I eventually silently delete without telling her, and she doesn't seem to notice.

Meanwhile, she still has both her TiVos mostly filled up. She's back to watching General Hospital, and has weeks worth (at least) backlog of eps in her NP. She probably has over a dozen Biography shows too. Lots and lots of other stuff, but I'm not quite sure what it all is.

It seems like last year she had cut back from archiving, but lately I've noticed an increase in her archiving habit. Sometimes she still tapes to those archaic VHS tapes, but mostly she burns to DVD, so at least that's more uptodate technnology. They also take up a lot less shelf space. I can tell that she doesn't like to put off her tasks of offloading, because it makes room on her TiVo after she deletes it.

I know I've told her that we have the ability to transfer shows to our PC, but I think she'd rather have the stuff on DVD and/or VHS.

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You should pick up one of those DVR Expander drives. The TiVo HD units only have 160GB drives. If you were to add a 500GB DVR Expander and you would quadruple your disc space and never have to worry about running low on space again.

I added a 500GB one to my S3, which starts with 250GB, and right now I have the complete seasons of 4 different shows (9-12 episodes apiece) plus a couple dozen more recently recorded shows, all in HD, and I still have 48 recordings in the Recently Deleted folder. (I don't use Suggestions)

I have *tons* of DVDs (DVD-Rs, DVD-RWs, and DVD-RAMs), and while I've been slowly transferring some stuff to an external hard drive (from finalized DVD-RWs, mostly music shows/recordings so I can hopefully get the audio off as MP3s at some point), I usually only watch something off DVDs to 'make more room on DVDs'..

It seems like last year she had cut back from archiving, but lately I've noticed an increase in her archiving habit. Sometimes she still tapes to those archaic VHS tapes, but mostly she burns to DVD, so at least that's more uptodate technnology. They also take up a lot less shelf space. I can tell that she doesn't like to put off her tasks of offloading, because it makes room on her TiVo after she deletes it.

A 1T hard drive can be had for as little as $80 plus shipping. You might really consider upgrading her drive, yours, or both.

Quote:

Originally Posted by timckelley

I know I've told her that we have the ability to transfer shows to our PC, but I think she'd rather have the stuff on DVD and/or VHS.

There are a lot of other advantages to offloading to a PC. First of all, in the long run it will take far less space and cost much less. It's also much faster and easier than copying to DVD or tape. Secondly, using an application like Galleon, one can have the programs archived to the PC automatically, with no intervention on your part, as long as they have some parameter in common (like similar or identical names or being part of a series). Thirdly, if you choose, you can have an external application automatically remove commercials. Fourthly, you can if you choose create a very handy folder structure for holding the programs. For example, I think you said she records soaps. She can create a separate folder for each Soap with sub-folders arranged by month, for example. Fifthly, if you find she is still being really bad about deleting stuff, adding 4TB or so to a PC is not terribly expensive or difficult, and I defy her to overflow a 4T system with SD videos. Finally, if the videos are stored on a networked PC, then they can be watched not only on any networked TiVo in the house, but also any other networked video device, like, say, a laptop.

BTW, if I were to somehow install this 4TB system you speak of, I guess I'd need another 4TB to back it up, in case of a hard drive crash or something.

Ah, there's the rub! Yes, if you consider the data on the system to be important, then backing it up is a must. Note your current implementation does not have backups, except those she copies to DVD.

My own personal solution to the dilemma is, just as you say, an independent backup server. Another option, however, would be offline storage. You can get an eSATA / USB hard drive docking station for under $40. Using this, you can back up data to individual hard drives you keep on the shelf. With this method, the total storage invested in the backup solution can be only slightly larger than the used space on the PC, not the total space. It also allows you to easily mix-and-match drive sizes at will, meaning you can purchase only the additional backup space you need and / or at the lowest price per bit. Right now the lowest cost per bit of which I know are 1.5 TB drives, although I think I remember seeing a holiday special on a 2T drive for around $140 somewhere. In any case, a 1T hard dive fits in less space on the shelf than a 25 pack of DVDs, yet easily holds as much info as 120 Dual Layer DVDs. Of course, Single Layer DVDs are much cheaper than Dual Layer, but they take up more than twice the space, and are only a little less expensive to purchase initially than the hard drive. Re-write the hard drive a time or two, and you've totally blown away any DVD solution for cost, as well.

For not a lot of money, you can build a multi drive raid storage tower. Then if you lose one drive, you can still access your data. I did this for easily less than $500 to start (controller, 3 ea 1 tb drives, and enclosure - went raid 5). Videos (and our library of digital photos & music) are available from anywhere in the house. We have a central location for electronic media with lots of expandable storage. You can even go cheaper and still have as much storage, though I like using raid for data I do not want to lose.

For not a lot of money, you can build a multi drive raid storage tower. Then if you lose one drive, you can still access your data. I did this for easily less than $500 to start (controller, 3 ea 1 tb drives, and enclosure - went raid 5).

Or if you are not crafty you can get a Drobo... yes, they are pricey but will grow with you and as time goes by bigger drives to add/swap into it will get cheaper.

I couldn't read through this entire thread... much too long. Someone probably has already made this suggestion, but if not, here goes.

A good solution would be to add one of the Humax Tivos with DVD burning capability. You can then off-load shows onto DVDs and file them in a box with colored coded sleeves. That frees up the space and makes them accessible at a later date--for your own --or your wife's marathons!

You can get a refurbished one from weakknees.com with larger capacity drives in them, too. That way you won't have to offload as often, but can when you want or need to. BOBW = best of both worlds.

I couldn't read through this entire thread... much too long. Someone probably has already made this suggestion, but if not, here goes.

A good solution would be to add one of the Humax Tivos with DVD burning capability. You can then off-load shows onto DVDs and file them in a box with colored coded sleeves. That frees up the space and makes them accessible at a later date--for your own --or your wife's marathons!

You can get a refurbished one from weakknees.com with larger capacity drives in them, too. That way you won't have to offload as often, but can when you want or need to. BOBW = best of both worlds.

Well there you go Tim. Problem solved.

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We've worked this out in my house. 2 adults, 1 teen, 1 pre-teen very different viewing habits.

I have a 109 hour Tivo in my office/family room that I am in charge of. No one is allowed to mess with it except me. They may watch, but they may NOT delete anything. (Cable/Sat)

We have a 101 hour Tivo in the living room that the kids can set up season passes on as well as some from husband. All 3 have complete control over this and have had to figure out common courtesys to make sure they don't step on each others toes (Cable/Sat)

We have a 40 hour ReplayTV in the bedroom that we picked up for a song and use for backup and a few of husbands shows. Husband and I are the only ones that mess with this one. (Cable Only)

Works well and most everyone is happy. The only problems we run into are the kids fighting over who has the most season passes.

It's complicated but it works and we're a happy TV viewing family

Was reading some of my old posts on this forum and saw this one... so weird. My kids are now HS and College age and we have 2 TiVos and 4 MCE machines going in our house each day. No conflicts any more, no arguments and more season passes than we need, some in triplicate. I can't believe this thread is still going. Haha

For not a lot of money, you can build a multi drive raid storage tower. Then if you lose one drive, you can still access your data. I did this for easily less than $500 to start (controller, 3 ea 1 tb drives, and enclosure - went raid 5). Videos (and our library of digital photos & music) are available from anywhere in the house. We have a central location for electronic media with lots of expandable storage. You can even go cheaper and still have as much storage, though I like using raid for data I do not want to lose.

One big caveat, though. RAID is not a backup solution, and it is not fault-proof. It is fault tolerant. More importantly, it cannot in any way make up for user error. A RAID solution should prevent the loss of data in the event of one or possibly more (depending on the RAID level) hard drives. If the user is willing to take the risk, then a RAID system is a moderately robust measn of storing data. Backups are the only answer to data loss from vectors other than a failing hard drive, though. In my case, the video server hosts a RAID6 array and the backup server hosts a RAID5 array. When 3T hard drives are introduced and come down in price, I will be converting all the drives in my RAID arrays to 3T drives, and taking all the old drives and using them for offline backups. This is probably a bit excessive for arrays smaller than 4T, as copying less than 4T of data can be done fairly quickly. For arrays larger than that, however, the odds of one array suffering a failure while trying to do a full restore to the other array start to rise high enough to be of concern.

I never understood this mentality. Since I've been married it (all income) has been "our" money... and all purchases were "our" things.

I have heard the "our money" (what he earns) and "her money" (what she earns) and say it jokeingly at times. But, my wife and I consider ourselfs as a true partnership so I couldn't pay for "half" of something.

Sorry to be off topic... or is it?

BOb

x2.

If your both contributing to your household then its "our" money, not "my" or "your" money.

Well, here's a new update: Over a week ago, our house got flooded, but I was careful to save all 3 TiVos. My TiVo was upstairs, so has been continuing to record, but I had to unplug both my wife's TiVos. For the last week, we've been living at my mother-in-law's house, so my wife took the liberty of scheduling a few of her most important shows on my TiVo.

Today, I hooked up one of her TiVos in the same room as mine (upstairs) so that TiVo is back in business finally. But she's had no time to watch anything, so I'm sure her backlog has been getting bad. Today she made the decision to delete about 18 episodes of Biography without watching them, and more than a half dozen episodes of Chuck. She's accepting that she can't realistically believe that she's going to eventually watch everything that's been sitting in her vast Now Playing list, so this is some progress on her part, I think. (Just a dent however, because at Basic Quality, she fits a huge amount of shows in her Now Playing.)

Today, she asked me to bring her other TiVo over to her mother's house, as she has analog cable through Time Warner just like we do, so I'd think it will work here. (I'm currently typing this on my MIL's laptop.) Well, I kept looking all over the house, and I couldn't find her other TiVo. At long last I found it in one of the upstairs bedrooms... she had moved it there post-flood but forgot she'd done that. That room is jampacked with stuff that got moved into it since we had to evacuate everything from the first floor, as we're going to have to repainted and recarpeted, so it was hard to find that TiVo.

Then I realized I had no power cord, and after the longest time, I found it in the garage, because that's where I moved the TV cart/stand during the flood to save it from damage. (I had to move a bookshelf to get to it.) By the time I retrieved the items I was so dehydrated that I was getting dizzy and short of breath, because my house, being uninhabited right now, is being kept at a high temperature to save on air conditioning, and I did this right after going on a 1 hour neighborhood walk with my son. But after drinking about 40 ounces of water, I felt a lot better. I guess I'm now about to plug in and set up this TiVo I just fetched for my wife.

She's made comments that she thinks she records too much, and would like to give one of her two TiVos to her mother, but her mother doesn't want it though, so I think we're still going to have all 3 TiVos in the family. Personally, I'd think she's want to keep both, because they're both single tuner S2s, and only one would provide no conflict resolution ability.

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sounds like theres a physical addition here, beyond the mental addiction, akin to methamphetamines or heroin. Why not schedule a record of "Intervention" on A&E? or better yet, call the hotline and make some cash doing an episode. lol.
All kidding aside, upgrade the hard drives, its super cheap and mega easy to do.
Sorry about the floods -- being a new englander, judging by last March's "historic floods", I sympathize with your troubles at home (you're not a local, by chance?) Luckily, she'll have plenty of time to catch up on season 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of deadliest catch before season 7 starts.

Hey, Tim--- do you guys have some kind of Netflix on-demand capability?

It might be interesting to try to break the hoarding cycle entirely by convincing her that EVERYTHING she wants to watch is waiting for her on Netflix and she can just sit down and select what she wants when she wants it. No need to bother recording anything or to decide what's a priority to watch. She can just pick what she's in the mood for when she has time to watch something.

I know my TiVoHD has that capability (though we've never subscribed to it); but I'm sure whether S2s have that. I they do, but I'm not sure; I'll have to look at the menus. We've talked about getting netflix, but haven't decided on it. One thing is for series currently being aired, I don't know that you can get that through netflix.

Other than that, can most things be gotten through netflix, and watched on demand (streaming through internet) like that? If so, it makes me wonder why we're paying over $60 a month (with no premium channels) to Time Warner Cable.

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I know my TiVoHD has that capability (though we've never subscribed to it); but I'm sure whether S2s have that. I they do, but I'm not sure; I'll have to look at the menus. We've talked about getting netflix, but haven't decided on it. One thing is for series currently being aired, I don't know that you can get that through netflix.

Other than that, can most things be gotten through netflix, and watched on demand (streaming through internet) like that? If so, it makes me wonder why we're paying over $60 a month (with no premium channels) to Time Warner Cable.

no you can not get current stuff and likely things like biography are not even available at any time via Netflix and especially streaming.

The S2 can do amazon rental or buy - but be careful here - one show costs 1.99. Hoarding is bad enough but racking up a big bill is too dangerous to risk. Introducing your wife to that idea would be a bad thing.

As for Netflix, that you can stream on the HD models only but like I said, it will not be exactly what she watches now and introducing your wife to yet more stuff to watch may not be the best approach

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Before I was married, I used to let my shows get built up like that. I would actually take VACATION DAYS from work so I could stay home and catch up on all my TV viewing.

At some point I came to the realization that I was addicted to TV. Now I limit myself to 1-2 shows per night (no more than 1.5 hours of total viewing). When new shows come out, we (I'm married with kid now) don't watch unless we eliminate an older show.

It helps that my daughter is 1.5 years old and we don't watch TV until after she goes to bed at 8.

I think I'm in the same boat as the OP's wife. I do delete shows but just record way more than I can watch. I have 3 upgraded Tivo's and all of them were running low on space. I figured that I would be able to clear up space over the summer but was still recording too much. With the fall season starting I decided to start cleaning house. I deleted 2 full seasons each of Brotherhood, Damages, and Californication. I delted SP's for a few other shows and am looking at what other shows I watch but could do without like The Apprentice. It's all Tivo's fault. Before I got my first one I watched a normal amount of TV. With each upgrade and additional Tivo, I recorded more and more stuff that I normally wouldn't have bothered with.